


Every Slice a Lesson

by Deannie



Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: 3K Round-up Challenge, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 12:31:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8056504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deannie/pseuds/Deannie
Summary: There were actually times when he found the repetitive motion of stitching very soothing. When it wasn’t a matter of life and death. When it wasn’t causing more pain to a body already wracked by it.





	Every Slice a Lesson

There were actually times when he found the repetitive motion of stitching very soothing. When it wasn’t a matter of life and death. When it wasn’t causing more pain to a body already wracked by it.

When it wasn’t stitching on a man with more honor in him than sense, who damn near got himself killed because a rich man saw a beautiful woman as nothing more than chattle. A slave to Don Paulo’s desires as much as Nathan himself had been a slave to Master Jackson’s greed...

Buck lay on Nathan’s cot mostly in a state of exhaustion, thank God, but even with the draught of herbs Nathan had poured down him, that brutalized body twitched with almost every slide of needle through skin.

He lost count of the stitches at a hundred, and with every further knot, his anger grew. Anger at Don Paulo, anger at Buck, anger at himself and at the God damned man who taught him how to use a blade in the first place. If Master Jackson hadn’t been the man he’d been, Nathan would never have been able to help Buck get himself in this position.

No, but Ezra would have taught him what little he knew and Buck’d likely be dead already. Damn Ezra, too, actually. What the hell kind of a man bet on the life of another? For all his protesting that he wasn’t like the slave owners Nathan’d grown up with, Standish sure as hell acted like a man’s life was only worth the money in his purse.

The door opened softly behind him, but Nathan was too busy to turn and look. Whoever it was just stood inside the door for a long while, and Nathan managed to finish sewing up the last of the bad slashes. Were a hell of a lot of smaller ones Buck’d be feeling for a while.

“Looks like a doll my sister Celia had when we were young,” Chris said, causing Nathan to look up at him. Man had a quiet resignation about him that Nathan didn’t quite understand. “Dog took to it a hundred times, and she’d just sit and sew it back together. Every time.”

Nathan snorted at that. 

“Sometimes you need something enough to keep stitching,” Chris told him, knowing exactly what Nathan was thinking. “Reckon some things are just worth the effort.”

He was right, of course. Buck was worth it. They all were—God help him, even Ezra.

“He’ll be all right,” he told Chris, cleaning up his tray and fixing to bandage what he hadn’t bandaged yet. He figured Chris was checking up on his friend.

“I know he will,” Chris replied gently, meaning it. “Once you finish bandaging that, why don’t you go on down and get a drink? I’ll look after this sorry excuse of a swordfighter.”

Nathan couldn’t help a chuckle at Chris’s fond insult. That man loved Buck like a brother. Hated him like one, too, probably.

“You know he’d be dead if it weren’t for you, Nathan,” Chris said, putting a hand on his shoulder. 

“Didn’t take much more skill with a needle than your sister had,” Nathan replied, an edge to his voice.

“I meant with the sword.” 

Nathan stiffened up. “Taught him enough to get himself killed,” he grated angrily, winding more linen around Buck’s leg. 

“No, he'd've done that all by himself, if it had come to that, Nathan.” Chris was dead serious. “Buck could’ve listened—could’ve listened to you, to me.” He sighed. “God help him, he could’ve listened to Ezra and been dead already.” Nathan nodded his agreement, though they both had a fondness to them. “Point is, what you learned with a sword kept him alive long enough for us all to finish it.”

Nathan looked at Buck, at the slashes he remembered the feel of. God, they hurt. “You ever had a sword slash?” he asked quietly. Chris shook his head. “Hurts like nothing else. More than bullets. Hell, almost as much as whipping.”

“Buck told me you said that was what made you better.” Chris settled into the chair beside the bed. “Every slice taught a lesson.”

“So what'd all this teach  _ him _ ?” Nathan asked, an edge of hopelessness to his voice. God, but he was sick of sewing up fools.

“Nothing, probably,” Chris said truthfully. There was such a shine of pride in his eyes, though… “Nothing he didn’t already know, at any rate.” He sighed. “One thing you need to know about Buck? There are lessons he won’t learn. Especially when it comes to one  person laying claim to another.”

That was true. Had been from the start. Whether it was a Confederate Colonel who would've slaughtered a village of "subhuman" Indians and ex-slaves for a handful of gold or a man who kept women captive for the exact same reason, Buck didn't cotton to one person owning another.

"And the damn fool doesn't always think before he acts," Chris finished fondly.

“Don’t always think after, neither,” Nathan muttered.

“But that isn’t your fault any more than teaching him to fight was.” He pegged Nathan with a look. “It’s done. He lived. Let it go.”

“Spent my whole damn life letting it go, Chris,” he growled. 

“I’m sorry for that,” Chris replied evenly. “But this ain’t something you can take on. He can’t fix me and you can’t change him.”

“Guess all I can do is sew him up," he barked. He felt his anger giving way, though, draining out of him in the face of Buck's survival.

“And get out and let someone else take over when he gets to that difficult stage.” It was clearly a dismissal, and Nathan realized Chris was taking care of more than one friend right now.

Nathan headed to the door, a lightness growing in his heart. “Ain’t figured where that one starts. Seems he was born difficult.”

Chris nodded his agreement with a smile. “Don’t make him any less worth it.”

Nathan closed the door behind him and headed down the stairs, trusting Chris to watch over his idiot friend.

Nah. Didn’t make him any less worth it at all.

*********   
the end


End file.
